15-19 October 2018

Sophie Evans

Hailing form Tonypandy in the Rhondda Valleys, Welsh singer and actress Sophie Evans came to prominence in 2010 when she was picked from over 10,000 hopefuls to appear on the hugely popular BBC series Over The Rainbow. After making it to the final, Sophie was named runner-up, and was subsequently chosen by Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber to don the legendary ruby slippers and play the alternate Dorothy in selected performances of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium in 2011.

In February 2012 Sophie was handed the role of Dorothy full time, become a leading lady of the West End at the most famous theatre in the world; a role she would continue in until the show closed in September that year.

Alongside her role in The Wizard of Oz, Sophie studied Performing Arts at the prestigious Arts Educational in London, which had been generously funded by Lord Lloyd-Webber. She also found time in her hectic schedule to perform live around the country, as well as various TV appearances, most notably on the S4C show [email protected]/love4language, and as the subject of the ITV documentary Dare To Dream, which charted a year in Sophie’s life.

Broadcast in December 2012, BBC One Wales’ The Really Welsh Christmas Show also saw Sophie performing alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and guests including Michael Ball and Only Boys Aloud, in her own Christmas special.

That month also saw her embark on a Christmas tour with Russell Watson, performing at the London Royal Albert Hall and Manchester Bridgewater Hall, which led into her first solo UK tour in early 2013, and a busy summer of festival appearances around Wales.

In early 2014, she will be part of an all-star cast performing, Irving Berlin: From Rags to Ritzes, beginning in London and later touring nationwide. She also featured in the 2014 film Pride, directed by Matthew Warchus.

2014 saw the release of Sophie’s debut album ‘The Studio Sessions’, offering an intimate take on some of her best loved songs including ‘Over the Rainbow’ and covers of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ and John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Later that year Sophie toured Japan with Paul Potts. Christmas 2014 Sophie did another Really Welsh Christmas show with BBC Wales.

At the beginning of 2015 Sophie toured the UK with Britain’s got Talent runners up Richard and Adam.

In September 2015 Sophie returned to the West End for a run of ‘You won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have any Jews’ at St James theatre.

Sophie has been very busy in the 2016 travelling the world with the Michael Flatelys ‘Lord of the Dance’. She did a 10 week run on Broadway, an American and Canadian tour and parts of Asia. Towards the end of 2016 sophie joined Ross Leadbeater on his Great British Songbook tour.